BY pAULAb

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At Ground-level It All Makes Sense

I can hear the sound of wet tires on pavement as the Village comes back to life. The Cardinals were up bright and early, heralding the dawn as they do these early spring mornings.

It must have rained all night, but thankfully the thunder was brief, or else I would have had a furry companion last night. Irish hates storms. She sat with me last night on the stoop and shook as the rainstorm rolled in from the southwest.

The sky lit up, as I sat finishing my last ‘cylinder of sin’ for the night.

I rolled into bed at quarter past 11, and she lay beside the bed. I have always wondered what it is that dogs fear in storms?

I’ve always seen them as powerful, but good and cleansing. They wash away, they dilute. The rain soaks the detritus and debris, creating a lovely humus to lay down upon the lands. The winds blow everything about, effectively giving everything a good launder.

Those mysterious flashes that light the night sky, affix nitrogen into the soil;

However, in a thunderstorm, there is enough electrical energy in lightning to separate the nitrogen atoms in the air. Once the atoms are separated they can fall to earth with rain water, and combine with minerals in the soil to form nitrates, a type of fertilizer.

The nitrogen-containing nitrates in the soil are absorbed by the plants, and when we eat the plants or the animals which eat the plants, we get the nitrogen in a form which our bodies can use.

I’ve always carried this memory from childhood, THOR or Mighty ZEUS throwing their bolts of lightning at the earth, affixing us all with this glow of divine energy.

I’m excited to see how everything does this year. Excited to once again see graceful ferns arching over broadleaf Hosta’s. To once again see Ajuga crawling along the ground. And all the bits and pieces of this ‘in-between garden’ that I’ve gradually put together.

in-betweenthe village and meThe space betweenwhere wesit and watch the worldOUT THEREgo by.